Category Archives: 2013

So after Exhale. came into Nova earlier today, people formed up to skirmish, and nothing came of it (except a certain someone making bank on nanite paste), we were looking for more pew. That meant that when psycher announced on comms that his Cheetah was almost close to die to an Arazu and a CLoki who had attempted to kill a different Cheetah, we formed up in glorious jubilation.

Our ~ELITE PVP FORCE~ of Rawstyle’s Maller, my Talos and pshycer’s Falcon formed up on the K162 that connected Nova to the C5 Black Hole in question. Their Loki jumped in and cloaked up. psycher was keeping eyes in the C5 as our fleet slowly climbed to around 8. Cerulean was contacted by old birdwatchers in HRDKX and told that we could expect a fight. Soon enough, psycher announced that 3 or 4 Nagas, 5 or 6 Talos, and a Deimos were landing on the Nova hole in the C5. We formed up with a Rapier and an Arazu on the hole. We heard WH activations, and Rawstyle began to burn his hero Maller, who hath tanked Hathrul, away as the Nagas and Talos came for him.

“Oh shit, they’re really close,” came the soothing British purr of Sir Nigel Peppercock, First Lord of the Admiralty, as he was pointed and approached by the evil forces of HRDKX. Just in time, the Rapier decloaked and webbed Peppercock’s closest pursuer as the fleet landed. HRDKX warped out to a celestial with most of their fleet, but one Talos jumped out, leaving valuable Infiltrator IIs behind, while a Naga was quickly dispatched.

We established a HIC on the WH and set our range. The fleet had climbed to over 10 now, as people in AFK channels noticed goings on. The HRDKX fleet landed again, close to us this time, and I called the warp-out. Most of our guys made it out but Darksheer got caught. At this point, Sonic had joined us in a second Arazu and the recons spread out. Having established our field control, we came back in and aligned at half speed, hoping that HRDKX would be emboldened by the trade and return. We could not force them to fight, and trying to tackle them with the Recons was risky and could quickly turn the ISK war (and the fight) against us. Just as we were debating bringing in something brick tanked and bait-ey, HRDKX blew up my close d-scan. We cycled MWDs and recons decloaked as the hostile gang landed 40km from our BCs. Shakor was unfortunate enough to get the primary and went down sooner than you can say “yellow box,” but we returned the favour. We now clearly had the upper hand and enemy DPS was slowed to a standstill. Points were spread and webs landed as their BCs started going down almost as soon as they were called primary. The shiniest of prizes was the Deimos, who seemed out of place with the other nano ships. We exchanged “gf” in local and went about looting with a Legion, hoping he might tempt HRDKX in for another run. Alas, they proved wise, and we gave them free passage from Nova in return for the passage granted us from their system months ago and for bringing a fight.

This might have been the end of it, but I was convo’d by the HRDKX FC and was told that if we were bored, a 5v5 cruiser brawl could be arranged next door. We eventually settled on 7v7, at 0 on the sun, combat and attack cruisers only. AHARM arrived in style, fielding MIGHTY SPACEDONGUES (GALLENTE MASTER RACE) while the aggressors came in inferior Ruptures and feeble Caldari ships which do not deserve naming. Mighty Robert was felled first for our side, for he was Frapsing and so by the rules of EVE, he must die first. I was next, but not before using my l33t Medium Blaster Spec 5 skills to top the damage on their second-to-die cruiser. We traded blows for a few minutes, but AHARM eventually emerged one cruiser ahead. The DPS difference grew and we lost less as they lost more until we were ultimately victorious. Three SPACE DONGUES survived the brawl. And HRDKX, next time,

[05:56:16] Domania > 1v1 carrier fight?

Carriers at the sun B)

Now for some corps, this could be enough, and I did have chili cooking to do for AHARM Haus food night so I went off to the kitchen. A night of quiet reflection, however, on the space violence I had done that day was not to be had.

[03:35:25] NoHo > just rolled into you fro a c4
[03:35:30] Noho > they have 2 caps out of pos

Welp. I jumped onto NoHo comms as Rawstyle herded AHARM pilots into armour T3s. The situation was that a small, 5-man gang of Vaga, Astarte, Heretic, and Legion had just killed an Orca in a C4, presumably as it closed the connection into Polaris. The Cataclysmic-dwellers then assigned fighters from a Nidhoggur and Chimera to chase NoHo around, but the WH gods frown upon the bullshit that can take place in C5s, as 10+ carriers circle jerking is super fucking stupid. Thus the wormhole gods deemed it fit to connect the offending C4 to the last system the inhabitants would ever want to hit…Nova.

The NoHo pilots joined our fleet, and we hopped onto their comms. We formed up on the new K162 to the C4 with 2 Guardians, a HIC and maybe a half dozen T3s. We advised NoHo to set up on a safespot as opposed to a WH, unsure whether T2 Corporation would engage on a WH when they couldn’t see the other side. NoHo’s scout reported that the Chimera was moving as a T2C Tengu landed on their gang at the safe. Moments later he reported warps from a Loki and the Chimera. We weren’t about to fuck this up, so we waited until the last possible moment – until T2C was in too deep. The carrier and Loki landed, and a Pilgrim decloaked and joined the party. NoHo bubbled up and spread points, and we piled in, having at least 5 different people bookmark the return wormhole in 3 separate bookmark folders.

As we landed, I saw that the Pilgrim was in deep armour with structure bleed and was being repped by the carrier, so I called the Tengu primary, hoping he may not have a lock from the non-triaged carrier. Our DPS was fairly high and the 34% hit to his local booster would have almost certainly meant death to the Chimera…and if he was half-competent, he would know it too. The Tengu danced in and out of deep armour until we overloaded and he popped, despite his impressive Warp Core Stab II tank. The Pilgrim was next, and his local armour tank did little more to save him than the Tengu’s stabs. The Loki stood a little while longer, but his armour tank and the incoming shield reps didn’t mesh and he eventually fell to our damage. We took care to quickly pod out all of the support pilots, though we weren’t initially sure about that choice. On the one hand, tackled caps are the best way to keep support coming. On the other, if these guys all had carriers, we could quickly run up against a tank we could not break. Since the C4 mass limitations prevented us from bringing in a dread, we decided to play it safe and score the guaranteed Chimera kill.

As the Loki went down, a lovely surprise presented itself: a lonely Nidhoggur landed at the edge of our bubble. We quickly started bumping him away from his bro while maintaining a HIC bubble on the Nid and a dictor bubble on the Chimera. As the Nidhoggur lost his shields, we noticed that he wasn’t running any active hardeners. Could it be that these guys had brought an armour tanked carrier to save a shield tanked carrier? We would soon find out as the Nid’s armour started to bleed…and then he had shields again. In a last desperate attempt to save his rep buddy, the Chimera had gone into triage. This move was exactly what we’d been waiting for. The Nid’s impressive rep amount bonus and the Chimera’s inherent shield resists meant that the Nidhoggur should have been the easier target, as we would be hard pressed to break a Chimera supported by a Nidhoggur with even 2 shield transfers. In triage, however, despite a potentially impressive tank depending on pimp fit, the Chimera was the much easier prey, as he would be weakened by the aforementioned local rep penalty from the Cataclysmic. Zelfor was left to point the Nid, and we burned our T3s back the 40km across space to sit on the Chimera’s chest and smash its face.

Unfortunately, the NoHo hero ‘dictor was now popped by the Nidhoggur’s fighters (somehow), after having tanked 28k damage (mad props Guardians). A second HIC rustled up from Nova and hurried to take over but he wasn’t needed. The Chimera initiated self destruct while in deep structure and was dead before he could kill himself. The Nidhoggur now stood no chance at all and succumbed to our space boat violence.

[04:02:09] Tasardur > can you dont pod me?

The answer was, of course, no. I would have considered a ransom in a smaller gang but with 15 people, there was little point. Having satiated our video-game violence and MTV sex-driven urges, we told NoHo to loot the Faction/Deadspace mods, brought in haulers from Nova for the larger cap mods that they couldn’t carry, and then escorted them down our chain into K-space, where they passed safely into Hek and out of our story.

All in all, a very successful Wednesday night/Thursday morning for a corp that is still fail-cascading. Good work to NoHo for finding those carriers and thanks to the WH gods for connecting us to the bliss of carrier kills. Also, a very special thanks to Tal for providing the Thoraxes that allowed us to win GLORIOUS HONOUR for AHARM in the cruiser brawl with HRDKX. gfgf to everyone and as Taylor knows best, you can’t let little things like fail-cascades or break-ups bring you down.